Microsimulation of road traffic with a time-continuous model

July 2, 2003 7:43 PM

traffic jam simulator [note: java applet]
posted by crunchland (20 comments total)

man! it's almost as fun as real life!
posted by graventy at 8:08 PM on July 2, 2003

this has taught me that i am an evil, vengeful traffic god.

[this is good]
posted by christian at 8:10 PM on July 2, 2003

Sweet. I love this sort of stuff.

Good, if old related Washington Post article.
posted by weston at 8:13 PM on July 2, 2003

damn, feels like home

if you kick up all the sliders, it becomes "405 at 5" simulator

anyone in LA knows exactly what I mean...
posted by badzen at 8:14 PM on July 2, 2003

"405 at 5" also rings sadly true here in Seattle.
posted by xmutex at 8:19 PM on July 2, 2003

that's really cool, now if only you could change the type of on and off ramp and throw in some 20 foot offramps directly into rotaries....BRU HA HA HA HA!
posted by NGnerd at 8:22 PM on July 2, 2003

traffic waves: SOMETIMES ONE DRIVER CAN VASTLY IMPROVE TRAFFIC!

starlogo traffic project :D
posted by kliuless at 8:51 PM on July 2, 2003

[this is fucking awesome]
posted by notsnot at 9:05 PM on July 2, 2003

fun. i got total gridlock by only adding about 100 more cars an hour. must forward the link to texdot.
posted by birdherder at 9:11 PM on July 2, 2003

you find great stuff, crunch - another winner! Thanks.
posted by madamjujujive at 9:52 PM on July 2, 2003

It's missing the option for percentage of tools who drive in the right lane with their left turn signal blinking for miles on end.

Other than that, quite cool.

So that's where the CogSci grad student got the model for his presentation this last spring that I was forced to sit through . . .
posted by Fezboy! at 9:56 PM on July 2, 2003

Great post. I once wrote something similar for a university project, although it was plagued with problems because my drivers each had their own reaction time, which eventually resulted in two or more of the cars crashing into each other.
posted by jonvaughan at 3:10 AM on July 3, 2003

Excellent! It is missing those annoying fools who skip lanes every 10 seconds when the traffic is almost at a stand still; and where are all the death wish bikers that weave about between the cars :)
posted by DrDoberman at 7:48 AM on July 3, 2003

I don't think it's much of a simulation. The cars tend to space out too evenly and everyone's too polite.

A better simulation would give each driver some random characteristics: preferred following distance (simulating tailgaters), preferred lane-change margin (simulating gap required to change lanes), preferred speed variance (simulating faster/lower than speed limit), and aggravation (which, as it increases, changes the other characteristics).

And then there should be my car, with it's fifty jillawatt laser, used to vapourize those assholes who just can't get their shit together. :-)
posted by five fresh fish at 9:06 AM on July 3, 2003

Great post. I once wrote something similar for a university project, although it was plagued with problems because my drivers each had their own reaction time, which eventually resulted in two or more of the cars crashing into each other.

Pffff! How realistic is that!?
posted by weston at 9:26 AM on July 3, 2003

If I've learned anything from this, it's that trucks should not be allowed on the road.
posted by drezdn at 10:54 AM on July 3, 2003

This is so neat. Do any of the SimCity type games include real traffic simulation like this yet?
posted by freebird at 11:05 AM on July 3, 2003

I don't buy it.

On the initial screen set up, with the semi-circle road with one ramp road at the bottom, when I increased the inflow from the ramp road, there was a build up, as traffic failed to filter into the outside lane successfully.

The traffic of the outside lane slowed down as the ramproad traffic eased into that lane, BUT the traffic in the inside lane also slowed down to a crawl, even though there was no reason (no inflow into that lane)!

So, in short. Bollox.

The end.
posted by Blue Stone at 11:10 AM on July 3, 2003

Yeah, it's not perfect. Though maybe the backup in the inside loop is from cars moving out of the backup in the outside loop into the inside loop. In any case, it seems realistic.

Though I've noticed, in the 'blocked lane' simulation, it's clear that some vehicles inexplicably move into the blocked lane as they approach the back up.

I guess we'll all have to wait for version 3.0.
posted by crunchland at 1:21 PM on July 3, 2003

or transims :D coming soon to a city near you!
posted by kliuless at 8:49 PM on July 3, 2003